


Red Eyes and Black Blood

by WhiskeysWorks



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blackwatch Era, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24659773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiskeysWorks/pseuds/WhiskeysWorks
Summary: “McCree, dropship leaves in ten. You better hurry up.”Jesse cursed, startled by the voice, his comm loud in the otherwise eerie silence.“Yeah, I’m workin’ on it,” he muttered, stepping over bent metal rods and spikes of concrete, heat from a fire beneath them wafting up unpleasantly. Before he could step any further, cold steel hit the bottom of his chin, the point on the end digging against his trachea dangerously.“Oh. It’s just you.”
Relationships: Jesse McCree/Genji Shimada
Comments: 6
Kudos: 109





	Red Eyes and Black Blood

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea if I've posted this before or if that was a fever dream but anywho here it is, hope you enjoy.

When Jesse had seen the arm laying obscured under the gravel and debris, he had felt something in his stomach drop. Genji’s arm. It had a trail of black and red in thick lines, like something had dragged through the small pool of it. Cables, perhaps. It was his prosthetic one, after all. 

The gunslinger ran to pick it up, the fingers cold and limp, making him uneasy. He’d held that same hand, felt it’s warmth against his palm, the slight but constant whirr of parts moving beneath it. Like it really was alive. There had not been any distress calls over the comms, which was another thing that drove Jesse’s concerns up. Either Genji’s comm had been damaged, or he had been too damaged to use his comm. 

Always a lovely thought to drive the heart rate up. 

Jesse climbed over the rubble carefully, following the trail of cybernetic blood left in smears or droplets here and there. It was getting dark, and the smoke from the fires around him had already been making his search more labourious. Jesse waved a hand in front of his face, squinting and coughing against his fist quietly. 

Their enemy had fled already, sure, but that did not mean he was safe in the slightest. Soon, gangs of scavengers would be coming around to pick through the bodies, see if there was anything valuable on them. Weapons, clothes, information. A lot could be learned from a battlefield. And Jesse was only one person on it, searching for someone that might not even be there.

“McCree, dropship leaves in ten. You better hurry up.”

Jesse cursed, startled by the voice, his comm loud in the otherwise eerie silence.

“Yeah, I’m workin’ on it,” he muttered, stepping over bent metal rods and spikes of concrete, heat from a fire beneath them wafting up unpleasantly. Before he could step any further, cold steel hit the bottom of his chin, the point on the end digging against his trachea dangerously.

“Oh. It’s just you.”

A much rougher and more robotic voice than he was used to, but still recognizable. 

Jesse relaxed his hold on Peacekeeper, letting out a little breath as Genji stared back at him. Eyes red pinpricks, part of his faceplate broken off, leaving shards of metal and scraps of black. Behind all that, his reconstructed jaw could be seen, sharp bits of carbon fiber and metal molded to look like teeth, the space between them gaping and dark. 

Blood dripped down in a stream over one of his eyes, new scars hidden underneath a layer of dirt and smoke. Jesse could tell something was off, just in Genji’s eyes alone. They were dull, almost like when he dissociated, but there wasn’t any fear in them. Just empty. He still had not lowered his katana.

“Yeah, it’s just me,” Jesse nodded, tapping the blade with two of his fingers and pushing it aside lightly when he felt no resistance. Genji’s eyes drifted to the side, unfocusing as his arm dropped. The gunslinger took his wrist gently, slowly sliding his hand down to take Genji’s weapon. 

His knuckles were white. Jesse stepped closer.

“Come on, Gen. We gotta go. Ship’s waitin’ on us.”

Genji stayed unmoving, swaying a bit as his eyes fluttered.

“Genji? Can you hear me?” Jesse asked softly, worry seeping into his tone. He reached up to brush some of the blood from the ninja’s face, trying to ground him. Genji’s eyes closed briefly, and he leaned into the touch. Then, he inhaled sharply, jerking back as his hand snapped up, grabbing Jesse’s wrist hard enough for him to feel the bone strain.

“Do not touch me.”

Glowering and harsh, Jesse doing his best to hold back his wince and keep an even face.

“Sorry, I won’t do it again. We have to go, now,” hse repeated calmly, though, his voice hardened when Genji’s grip only tightened.

“Let me go.”

The ninja blinked a few times, releasing Jesse’s arm slowly. Confusion flickered across his face before it paled.

“I’m sorry—"

“It’s fine, we gotta go. Can you walk?” Jesse interrupted, getting a single nod in affirmation.

“Alright, follow me.”

Their pace was light and quick, Jesse tugging Genji along whenever he slowed, the ninja silent the entire way back. He would not look Jesse in the eye. The dropship finally came into sight, the pilot sighing and waving them forward from the open doors.

“Get on, you two! We’re already twenty minutes past scheduled departure time because of your slow asses!”

“We don’t leave people behind,” Jesse snapped at her as he passed with Genji in tow, getting a scoff.

“Yeah, and I waited so relax, hot rod,” she grumbled, climbing into the front and closing the doors. They took off as Jesse sat down with a heavy sigh, letting Genji be fussed over by the medic on hand for this particular mission. The kid was new, but he knew what he was doing. Sharp words of reprimand were followed by a fearfully muttered “what will Dr. Ziegler think?” had Genji looking down, properly chastised. 

Jesse made sure to keep an eye on him throughout the flight back, but after that, it was off to the med bay with the cyborg. Somewhere Jesse was not allowed to follow. 

Genji went with the nurses solemnly, gaze fixed on the ground in front of him. Jesse watched him go, something about his behaviour sitting wrong in the back of his mind, but not far enough from the usual to pick out. With another sigh, the gunslinger pulled out a cigarillo, taking the opposite route to give Reyes a post-mission report.

-

It was a little past midnight two days later that Genji came back to the room, Jesse scrolling through information on Deadlock Gorge absently. Just keeping tabs. He closed it down quickly when he heard the door beep open and shut, brows raising when he saw Genji. 

His prosthetics were covered with a tight black synth skin, everything back to clean and pristine, faceplate fixed into place once more. He only had a few pieces of tape over some cuts visible above his faceplate, but other than that, he seemed fully healed. If it weren’t for that look in his eyes telling him the opposite. Sunk in and exhausted, guilt dancing behind them as he went to his bed and sat on it quietly, back facing Jesse.

“Hey. Glad to see you back in one piece.”

No response. So it would be one of these nights. 

Jesse set aside his tablet, sliding off his bed and walking over to Genji’s. He trailed his fingers over the ridges of the ninja’s spine, metal warm and little spots glowing beneath his fingertips. Squeezed the nape of his neck gently, leaning closer, but keeping enough space between them for Genji to pull away, should he want to.

“You feelin’ any better?”

A tiny shake of the head, Genji’s shoulders scrunching up slightly. He was shivering. Jesse hummed softly, taking off his flannel and draping over Genji’s shoulders instead. Synthetic fingers tugged the material closer to him weakly. Jesse sat down on the bed next to Genji, leaning on his arm and tipping his head to the side to see his face.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“I’m sorry. For what happened,” Genji murmured, Jesse raising a brow.

“‘S alright. Happens to the best of us.”

“No, I...I knew it was you and I still. I still could not pull myself out of it.”

“Gen,” Jesse started, urging the ninja to look at him with a touch to the chin, Genji doing so reluctantly.

“It’s okay. I get it. You’d lost a lot of blood and were paranoid, I went in knowing that may have been the case. You figured it out in the end.”

“I was going to kill you. Jesse, I almost killed you...! I wasn’t thinking, I didn’t see my arm and I thought you were him! I thought it was that night again but...I knew it was not. It was messing with my head and...I’m sorry. I should have had better control,” Genji told him softly, words murmured but frantic, like he had been holding them in for too long. 

Jesse could understand that. 

He nodded a bit, waiting to see if Genji had more to say, curling his pinky around two of the ninja’s fingers.

“You...You got mad, didn’t you? It’s the only thing I remember clearly. Angela did too, she always does, because she knows that I—"

His voice stopped short, Jesse frowning slightly at the way Genji’s eyes darted to him before looking back down quickly.

“She knows that you what?”

Genji shook his head, curling up under the flannel a bit more. A glance down showed him the ninja’s fingers digging into his thigh hard enough to leave impressions. Jesse had seen this before, when he had caught Genji in the training rooms tearing into the wires on his prosthetic wrist, wakazashi cutting through them messily. The gunslinger looked right at Genji, waiting until he glanced up again.

“That you do it on purpose. Gettin’ hurt and tearin’ up your prosthetics?”

A hesitation, then, a whispered, “Yes.”

“Gen, look at me, darlin’.”

He did, eyes tired and unsure. Jesse took the ninja’s hands in his own, rubbing his thumbs over the backs of them as he spoke.

“Listen. I wasn’t mad then, and I’m not now, either. I’m just worried about you. I saw your arm there in the dirt and I wasn’t sure if you’d be alive when I found you. And when I did find you, I could tell how out of it you were. It just scared me, sugar. A lot of the shit you pull does, I’m not gonna lie. This whole thing you do to...Hurt yourself here, it scares the livin’ shit outta me. You mean so much to me, Gen. I don’t like seein’ you in pieces, but even when you aren’t physically, I can tell you are up there,” Jesse reached up and tapped lightly against Genji’s temple, then let his hand slide down to cup his cheek.

“I know it’s not always easy, but you do know that you can come get me if you ever need anythin’. Anythin’ at all. I got your back, and I wanna see you...At least okay. I don’t know if either of us can really be happy here, but I wanna see you be okay. And I know it ain’t much, but I’m here for you. Please don’t forget that.”

Genji nodded, face tucked into his forearms, eyes trained on the floor. Jesse wrapped an arm around his shoulders, tugging gently until Genji leaned into him. Pressed a kiss to his temple, the ninja taking off his faceplate and setting it aside as he moved closer.

“You wanna get some rest for me, darlin’?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. Let me know if you need anythin’, alright?”

“Stay, please...” Genji whispered, grabbing Jesse’s fingers, squeezing them gently. He was still staring at the floor, still avoiding eye contact. 

Still holding on to the flannel, still leaning into the cowboy. 

Jesse smiled, giving him another little peck on the top of his head.

“Sure thing, hon. Just let me change real quick.”

Genji nodded, allowing Jesse to stand and get into some pyjamas, watching him move around the room with his chin on his knees. Jesse turned out the lights and hopped into bed next to the ninja when he was through, feeling him wiggle and shift to get comfortable. Felt his lashes flutter against his chest, breath a warm puff as he exhaled slowly, relaxing into the gunslinger’s hold.

“Thank you, Jess,” Genji murmured, just barely a whisper.

“Of course. I got you, Gen. Get some rest.”

The red light shining in his peripheral dimmed, then disappeared, Genji’s breath evening out after a few minutes. Jesse pulled the blanket up over his shoulder, tucking it in before he closed his eyes too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :)


End file.
